The Second Virgin

This is a work of fiction. All characters and incidents are fictional.

Chapter seven of the novel The Great Goddess

Please read from chapter one.

Sandhya was on her way to Thimor in the swan form to meet Sanuya, with the gold ring in her claws. At the same time in another part of the northern mountains, somewhere around half of a thousand miles east of the cave in which Sandhya meditated, a sister was praising her elder brother. “Oh great lord of fire, storm and water.” Yes, he was the lord of fire, storm and water, but only for Thimor. No one in Thimor or other parts of the kingdom knows how he got the right to be lord of those three elements in Thimor.

He carried fire in his bare right hand and a pot of water in his left and his breath was storm. The sister continued with the praising. “One who sustains with fire, storm and water when calm and destroys with same when angry.”

After she finished her honouring, he got up from his throne, both the fire and water pot vanished from his hands. He approached her and said. “My sister, the lady of marriage, I am very pleased by your words.”

Yes, she is the lady of marriage in Thimor, she decides who marries whom and informs the parents of both the bride and groom.

But in the case of Sanuya, from her childhood her parents said she would make a good wife of the son of that city’s administrator, she too was fixed on that. But on the previous day the lady of marriage had informed her parents about her future husband, it was not as she expected, her marriage is about to take place with the son of the admistrator of another city.

She decided to end her life by jumping off her balcony, she walked towards the balcony, at that moment she felt a sensation of peace.

——————————————–

Vihani was lying on her bed thinking about all the incidents that had taken place. She had asked Javanthi about the union of sun and moon, but Javanthi had told her that she will explain it the next day. She became interested in learning magic. Next morning she opened her door slightly and peeped out and watched her brother’s room door, it was still closed.
She waited, after sometime she heard the door open, it was her brother. She closed her door. She waited until her brother walk away, then she again opened the door, she saw her brother at the end of the corridor, near the main hall. She then walked into her brother’s room.

“Good Morning sister” She said.

“Hey, good morning Vihani, what brings you here so early?” Javanthi asked.

“The events of yesterday, I want to ask something from you, a favour.” Vihani replied.

“What is it dear?” asked Javanthi.

“Can you teach me magic? how did you learn it?” asked Vihani.

“Oh! it’s a very long story, I will tell you later.” Javanthi said.

“No! Tell me now, I can’t wait any longer” said Vihani.

Javanthi smiled and took her to the small table at a corner of the room. There were two chairs on either side of the table. Javanthi made Vihani sit on one of the chairs and she sat on the other.

“Fine dear, tell what you want to know?” asked Javanthi.

“How did you come into the world of magic?” asked Vihani.

“It happened when I was fifteen years old, a lady came to our castle, she said that she comes from a secret intellectual group called The Order of the Northern Mountains which was in a village at the base of the Northern Mountains. The village is not part of any kingdom. It was outside all the kingdoms. When I heard it, I was very much exited and wanted to know more about that village, the order and the lady herself.” said Javanthi.

“I went to her chamber and met her personally, she was only eight years older than me but after few days we were more or less like mother and daughter.

She started to teach me many things, magic is just one of them.” Saying this Javanthi removed a chain from her neck and placed it on the table between them. It was gold, It was a regular tetrahedron. All four side had a symbol, its vertical height was around half the length of Javanthi’s middle finger.

“What is it?” asked Vihani.

“It is the symbol of Sandhya, It was given to me by that lady and to her by Sandhya, those who are in the order learn directly from Sandhya. Sandhya appear and teach to each one of them in a different form. For this lady she appeared in a dark blue silk saree with the pallu spread over the length of the left hand and holding an orange flame on the palm of her right hand.” said Javanthi.

“Explain the symbol.” said Vihani.

“The space within the object is the Great Mystery, from it comes Sandhya, represented by the top vertice. From Sandhya comes the three set of creatures the serpent, the three beasts that is the horse, bison and boar and the crocodile represented by the three edges that comes down down from the top vertice.

The three base vertices represent the three human forms of Sandhya, the queen, the one who rules, below the edge of the three beasts, as the three beasts symbolize dominance.

The maid, the one who is ruled, below the edge of the crocodile, as the crocodile symbolize sorrow.

The lady, the one who neither rules nor is ruled or who sometimes rules and at other times is ruled, below the edge of the serpent, as the serpent symbolize balance and neutrality.

Three three represent the three states of nature, the electron, proton and neutron of atoms. The plus, minus and zero of number and all other things.

The three faces below the top vertice represent the lords and ladies that came from Sandhya, they are grouped into three based on their characteristics, based on the three edges. Each lord and lady has a mixture of characters of the two edges at either side of the face of which they belong.

The face at the base directly below the top vertice represent the dragon form.

The other three faces also had symbols of three birds, a swan on the face opposite to the queen’s vertice. A peacock opposite the lady’s vertice. A rooster opposite the maid’s vertice those represent the form Sandhya takes when meeting those three human forms.

The members of the order call the whole thing as the teacher and represents the form in which Sandhya comes to teach them.

“Tell me more about your magical journey” said Vihani.

“It is a journey of space, time and thought. We spent many hours together walking around the castle discussing all kinds of things. I will tell you all that little by little. I shall teach you as she did, let’s walk around the castle gardens discussing all sorts of things. I think this is enough for today.” said Javanthi.

Vihani got ready to leave, then she remembered something. “I want to know one more thing.” Vihani said.

“What is it my dear?” asked Javanthi.

“Sandhya told about the union of sun and moon, what does that mean?” asked Vihani.

“It means when the sun and moon are close to each other.” said Javanthi.

“You mean, new moon?” asked Vihani.

“Yes, but to be precise, not just any new moon but a solar eclipse. Where you can see the sun and moon embrace each other.” said Javanthi.

“That makes sense.” said Vihani and walked out of the room and into hers.

———————————————

Sanuya’s whole body started to shiver, her legs became weak and when she was about to collapse, Sandhya flew in, as the swan, went behind Sanuya and turned into her true form. She walked close to Sanuya from behind and held her by the waist from behind with her left hand. Just as Sandhya touched, Sanuya’s shivering stopped.

Sandhya brought her mouth close to Sanuya’s right ear and whispered. “Relax my dear, everything is fine.”

Sandhya took her hand from Sanuya’s waist and touched her shoulders with both hands and slowly turned her around. Sanuya looked into Sandhya’s eyes. Sandhya smiled. Sandhya held Sanuya’s left hand with her left hand and slowly raised it and slipped the ring into her left middle finger using her right hand.